BenKeel

Former Special Assistant to the Secretary

Former Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Interior

Ben Keel previously served as a special assistant to the Secretary of the Interior. He left the Interior Department in June 2017.

Ben Keel has worked in Oklahoma Republican politics, beginning as candidate Thad Balkman’s campaign manager in an Oklahoma House race in 2000, and more recently working as a legislative assistant in the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 2013 to 2015. He has also held positions as a field director for the Republican National Committee, as a senior field director on North Dakotans for Common Sense Conservation, and as a senior field director for Americans for Prosperity, a Koch brothers-funded group. Most recently, he worked as the Oklahoma state director on Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Special Interests

North Dakotans for Common Sense Conservation (Resource Development on Public Lands)

Keel worked for North Dakotans for Common Sense Conservation, a group that opposed a 2014 North Dakota ballot measure to divert 5% of future oil revenue to fund clean-water projects, wildlife preservation and parks.

In 2015, Ben Keel worked for Americans for Prosperity, a Koch-backed groupthat pushes “conservative causes and pro-oil policies.”

Ben Keel, in 2015, worked as a senior field director for Americans for Prosperity in O’Fallon, Missouri, during which time he educated the “public on Right to Work Issues in Missouri.” Americans for Prosperity is a “powerful lobbying group” “founded and partly funded by the oil billionaire Koch Brothers” that pushes “conservative causes and pro-oil policies.”